Meaning & Analysis
Every individual should diligently practice their specific trade, profession, or station in life, as this is their designated role or responsibility.
Insights
Social Order and Specialization
The proverb serves as a blueprint for social stability, suggesting that a functional society depends on each person fulfilling their specific role without overreaching. It champions specialization and warns against the chaos that ensues when individuals abandon their area of expertise.
Divine Duty and Fulfillment
It frames work not merely as a job but as a sacred duty or divine summons ('vocation'). This implies that personal fulfillment and moral righteousness are achieved by faithfully embracing and excelling in one's given profession, regardless of its status.
Adherence to Expertise
The proverb acts as a warning against exceeding one's own competence. It advises individuals to remain within their sphere of knowledge and skill, aligning with the sentiment of the related proverb, 'Let not the cobbler go beyond his last'.
Protestant Work Ethic
This proverb is a cornerstone of the Protestant work ethic, which sanctified secular labor as a divine 'calling'. The biblical citation from 1 Corinthians was central to Reformation thought, arguing that fulfilling one's professional duties was a form of religious service, a concept that profoundly shaped Western attitudes toward work.
Social Hierarchy
While elevating all work, the proverb was also a powerful tool for reinforcing social hierarchy. By framing a person's station in life as a divinely ordained 'calling', it discouraged social mobility and justified the existing class structure, as seen in the 1539 quote warning the cobbler against becoming a military captain.
Literary Subversion
The proverb's cultural saturation is evident in its ironic usage. Shakespeare's Falstaff in '1H4' subverts its moral weight by claiming thievery is his 'vocation', twisting a principle of divine duty into a justification for his criminal lifestyle.
Psychological Constraint
Psychologically, the proverb promotes finding identity and purpose within a defined role. It provides a sense of stability and belonging but can also function as a constraint on ambition, framing the desire to change one's lot as a deviation from a preordained path.
Rhetorical Devices
Religious Diction
The use of 'calling' or 'vocation' (from Latin 'vocatio', a summons) elevates the concept of work from a mere task to a sacred, divinely appointed duty, lending the proverb immense moral and spiritual weight.
Metaphor
The phrase 'to walk in' one's calling is a metaphor for how one should live their life. It portrays one's profession not as a static job but as a continuous, dynamic path or journey that must be followed.
Imperative Tone
The imperative mood ('Everyone must...') combined with the universal 'everyone' creates a powerful sense of inescapable, collective obligation, presenting the principle as a fundamental law of society and morality.
Transcription
Quotations
Let euerye man exercise hym selfe in the facultie that he knoweth. Let the kobler medle wyth clowtyng his neyghbours shoes, and not be a capitaine in felde, or meddle wyth maters concernynge a common wealth.
Fyrste walke in thy vocation, And do not seke thy lotte to chaunge.
Labour in thy vocation.
Every man labour according to his vocation and calling.
If it be my vocation to sweare, every man in his vocation.
Every man must follow his trade, and every woman her occupation.
'Tis my vocation, boy; we must never be weary of well-doing.
Alas, madam, we would all be glad to live in our callings.
Let euery one follow and walke in their owne calling.
Let every man betake him to his owne occupation.
Wee ought to remaine in the Trade wee haue learned.
Nay, pray Master Snore, let her labour on in her calling, else she can't pay her rent.
Serve God in thy Calling, 'tis better then praying; viz. This is meant of foolish impertinent Zelotts.
To labour in his vocation or calling.
Bible Citations
Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.
Shakespeare Citations
And yet it is said, 'Labour in thy vocation'; which is as much to say as 'Let the magistrates be labouring men'; and therefore should we be magistrates.
Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal. 'Tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.